Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Zoroastrianism's Influence on Judaism, Christianity and Islam

INTRODUCTION

Most people know
that Pagan religions existed before Christianity and Judaism, and that many of
them contained familiar themes:an underworld,
a hero/god/savior born of a virgin, powers of magical healing, and a
resurrection.For instance, we know
about the vegetation god Tammuz who resurrected for six months each year. We know about gods like Thor, who ruled a
specific part of nature (God of Thunder), and we know gods and goddesses like
Attis, Inanna and Osiris could have inspired the Jesus resurrection story.But which stories are verified to have influenced
Judaism and Christianity? Were all of
these similar stories just coincidence?Although there is a very good chance these
ancient religions leaked into the modern religions, and I can think of a few
ancient stories that in my opinion “just had to have been the origin of stories
in the Bible,” it is difficult to find when such links occurred or prove they
occurred.

ZOROASTRIANISM
But there is one religion we know directly influenced the foundations of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.It is the
ancient religion of Zoroastrianism.We
can be certain that these following themes came from Zoroastrianism: a war in the world between good and evil, God
versus Satan, a warring of the human spirit between good and evil, and the idea
of one god only (monotheism), with a hierarchy of angels and archangels
underneath.Additionally, the story of
the “slaughter of the innocents,” the idea of a general resurrection, the
wording “a present age of darkness with a coming age of light,” and the concept
of a final judgment at the end of the world with a savior who will “come very
soon,” all derive from Zoroastrianism.

How did the Israelites pick up these ideas?An exile occurred in 597 B.C.E. and continued until 538 B.C.E.Approximately 10,000 Israelites were sent
into exile to Babylon
where they were surrounded by Zoroastrian beliefs, and when they returned,
their own writings took a sharp turn and emphasized all of these new themes.Nearly all religious historians are in
agreement that Zoroastrianism was the reason for these beliefs in Christianity,
Judaism and Islam; of course, some fundamentalist Christian scholars disagree.

HISTORY OF THE
UNDERWORLD

Many Pagan religions
believed in an underworld, with Hades as guard to keep people from
escaping.A very few dead people
negotiated with Hades to return to earth, including Tammuz and several of his
dead friends. Hades, himself, was a god
who “got the short end of the stick” and had to rule the underworld when three
gods, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades drew straws. Zeus became King of the Gods, Poseidon the
Ruler of the Sea, and Hades the Lord of the Underworld.

The Israelites had a
similar underworld they called Sheol, which, in early writings, was just a vague,
gloomy place where everyone went when they died, like other descriptions of
underworlds.It was thought that when
people were buried, they fell into the Underworld and lived underground. Stories as far back as when Sumerians lived
spoke of gods visiting the Underworld, and the Underworld and Sheol were what
the early Israelites believed in until they were exiled and decided a place of
punishment for sinners was more exciting. (The Bible has mistranslations, and the word
Sheol is called Hell in a lot of Bibles, whether it was the gloomy place or the
punishing pit of fire.)

The book of Daniel was written after the exile to Babylon.It has the first description of a Hell as a direct opposite to Heaven. Anyone can see how a story would improve with
an arch-enemy and wars and fear put into it!The Israelites did not admit they had just absorbed Pagan, Zoroastrian
beliefs and called all these beliefs their own.

Does anyone wonder
why most of us never heard of Zoroastrianism?Here it is, one of the oldest religions in the world, and we know
nothing about it.But, a few of us will
recognize the phrase (and book) “Thus Spake Zarathustra!” The Prophet Zarathustra (which means “shining
light”) also became known as Zoroaster.The
writings of Zoroaster are in the Gathas and date to 1300 B.C.E.Many claim the religion is much older than
that, some saying it goes back to 6350 B.C.E., but the “evidence” is not of a
type that can be seen, so I am going by when the words were written down,
because that would be the time period Zoroaster would have lived.At 1300 B.C.E., it still puts Zoroastrianism
as one of the most ancient religions, along with Hinduism.

ZOROASTRIAN BELIEFS

Let us learn exactly what
Zoroastrians believe.Our Yahweh sounds
like the descriptions of the “good” Zoroastrian god, law giver and judge, Ahura
Mazda.Ahura Mazda is the supreme
creator and all that is good, but he is battled by the evil Angra Mainyu (our Satan),
so there is this strong duality between good and evil.Angra Mainyu is the evil god of snakes and
scorpions, and Ahura Mazda is the god of all other animals.Zoroastrians believe in seeking good and in
doing good deeds, because the more good they do, the more good will be in the
world, and one day evil will be destroyed.They believe in a warring duality both in spiritual thoughts of the body
and the warring of Ahura Mazda versus Angra Mainyu in the world.There is only one god in Zoroastrianism; it
is credited as being the first monotheistic religion, but there are many angels
and arch angels working under Ahura Mazda.They believe Ahura Mazda and his son, Saoshyant (which means Savior), will
judge in next world and he will bring the end of evil.Keep in mind all of this was written before
any of these ideas appeared in Judaism and before Christianity existed.

No one wants to admit that their religion evolved from earlier religions,
because it would negate their religion as chosen, special - the only true and
right religion, with the writers being inspired by their god.But credit should be given where credit is
due:the prophet Zoroaster founded most
of the major, underlying concepts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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About Me

I became an atheist thanks to YouTube! For years I hovered between having a God, being "spiritual" and being agnostic - in fact, most of my life. There was only a short period of time when I was a Jesus Freak along with my brother, but I did not fit in with his group. I attended a religious college for two years and felt like the "odd woman out" there as well. One day on the main page of AOL there was a picture of Kirk Cameron and another picture of a pretty young blond woman with curly long hair and a cute little chin. They said she got more "hits" on YouTube than Kirk did! Of course, it was Zomgitscriss! I watched her video and thought, "You know, I think like she does, but she is a lot smarter than I am!" I watched more of her videos, and she said it was just a hop, skip and jump from agnosticism to atheism. I thought, "Oh, I could never be an atheist - it's such a harsh word!" I decided to look at her favorites and saw a big guy with long hair who looked like he belonged in a motorcycle gang. I smirked and thought, "This will be good - let's see what he has to say," thinking he had to sound dumb. It turned out to be Aron Ra, and I was treated to video after video about evolution, taxonomy and phylogeny - subjects I knew nothing about! What an education! One day, I clicked on Pangeaprogress' videos. I saw his beautiful nature videos of Africa. Suddenly, a pack of lions surrounded an antelope and started eating her, slowly, starting at the hips and wherever they could bite. I was totally shocked. I had been overprotected a good share of my life, and my mother always told me that animals "always went right for the neck and the death was over in an instant." Well, it wasn't. From that moment on, I was an atheist. No God could sit by and watch such cruelty and pain and suffering and allow it to happen. No excuses. This is how YouTube converted me, and my eyes have been opened to so many new ideas thanks to the Internet!